Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney, a company known for its artificial intelligence (AI) image-generation tools. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, claims that Midjourney lets users create images using famous characters like Darth Vader, Shrek, and Wall-E-without permission from the studios that own the rights.
The lawsuit was filed by Disney Enterprises, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Universal City Studios Productions, and DreamWorks Animation. They say Midjourney’s AI tools are creating and sharing images that copy their copyrighted characters, calling the company a “bottomless pit of plagiarism.”
This legal action highlights growing tensions between major Hollywood studios and AI tech companies. As AI becomes more advanced and popular, entertainment companies are becoming more concerned about how their content is being used without their approval.
Midjourney is a leading generative AI platform that allows users to type in a prompt such as “Darth Vader at the beach” and receive a detailed image based on the request. According to the lawsuit, the AI platform has already created thousands of images using copyrighted characters, which are then shown on the company’s website and available for download.
“If a Midjourney subscriber submits a simple text prompt requesting an image of the character Darth Vader in a particular setting or doing a particular action, Midjourney obliges by generating and displaying a high quality, downloadable image featuring Disney’s copyrighted Darth Vader character,” the lawsuit says.
Furthermore, the studios argue that Midjourney was able to create these outputs because it used copyrighted content from the internet to train its AI. This includes images and videos that were collected using bots, scrapers, and other tools that download or copy digital content.
“Midjourney downloaded from the internet, and other sources, content using tools variously described as bots, scrapers, streamrippers, video downloaders, and web crawlers,” the complaint explains. It also claims that the company’s founder, David Holz, admitted that their tools collect “all the data it can, all the text it can, all the images it can.”
Additionally, the lawsuit says that Midjourney not only creates new images using protected characters but also promotes these AI-made images through its “Explore” section, which showcases content created by users. The studios argue that this shows the company knows its tools are being used to copy copyrighted works.
“Midjourney’s publication and curation of infringing images on the Explore page show that Midjourney knows that its platform regularly reproduces Plaintiffs’ Copyrighted Works, and that the Explore page is intended to advertise Midjourney’s ability to infringe the Copyrighted Works,” the complaint adds.
Notably, the lawsuit also claims that Midjourney has the technical ability to stop these copyright violations but has chosen not to use any available tools to prevent them. “Despite having the ability to do so, Midjourney has affirmatively chosen not to use copyright protection measures to limit the infringement,” the complaint says.
Charles Rivkin, MPA CEO, said, “Strong copyright protection is the backbone of our industry. A balanced approach to AI that both protects intellectual property and embraces responsible, human-centered innovation is critical for maintaining America’s global leadership in creative industries.”
Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal officer, said, “Our world-class IP is built on decades of financial investment, creativity and innovation — investments only made possible by the incentives embodied in copyright law that give creators the exclusive right to profit from their works,” he said. “We are bullish on the promise of AI technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an AI company does not make it any less infringing.”
This case could set an important legal precedent for how AI tools interact with copyrighted materials going forward.